| April 3,
2004 RESIDENTS URGED TO TURN IN FIREARMS
LAPD
Chief William Bratton and community leaders called on residents Friday to
turn in unregistered firearms, saying the guns are a growing menace on the
streets of Los Angeles.
Reducing the number of guns in Los Angeles is a critical component of the chief's goal of reducing homicides by 20 percent this year compared with 2003. Bratton said Los Angeles Police Department officers confiscate about 30 illegal firearms daily. |
| ``Once again we are
looking to the public to give us assistance to make this a safer city,''
Bratton said at a news conference at LAPD headquarters, where police
displayed an AK-47, Uzi, sawed-off rifles and semiautomatic handguns.
``We cannot expect to keep crime down when thugs have
access to guns like these and continue to use them.''
Although many of the weapons displayed Friday were seized
in South Los Angeles, police also found a cache of firearms at a home in
the west San Fernando Valley while responding to reports of a loud party,
said Capt. Jeri Weinstein.
Councilman Dennis Zine, a retired LAPD traffic sergeant,
said police aren't able to reduce the homicide rate single-handedly.
``The Police Department can only do so much. It's incumbent
on the public to get involved.''
To report illicit firearms, call the LAPD's hotline at
1-877-LAWFUL.
|